Archbright™ Insights April 2017

LOOKING AHEAD Insights

Making Better Decisions About Pay What to pay is a question asked by organizational leaders almost every day. Because compensation has a significant impact on the bottom line, there are times when an organization should consider gathering market driven data to assist them in making these important and timely pay decisions: Recruiting for an open position. When an employee leaves or you open an all-new position, this is a great time to find out what the market is paying for that role. If you have received qualified candidates but no one is accepting your offer, it may be your pay for the position is too low compared to offers from other organizations. Annual pay adjustment time. At a minimum, it is best to gather pay data annually for your top 5 most challenging positions. Consider positions that are hard to fill, that you would have no idea what to do if the employee left that position tomorrow, or those where an employee has been in the same job for a long time. Culture or morale challenges. If you hear “I am not sure if I am paid fairly” or worse “I am not paid fairly,” pay data can help. Obtaining market driven data on positions through a consistent process often helps employees feel confident that organizational leaders value employees and want to pay fairly and competitively. Fortunately, there are many tools available to help leaders make pay decisions. When evaluating market data, it is important to have a general understanding of the following: • The source of the data. Was it an individual or an organization? Are you more confident with individuals providing their own information or an organization providing it to a third-party survey organization? • The number of organizations and incumbents represented by the data. Is there 1 organization that gave data for 100 employees or are there 5 organizations each providing information on 20 employees? Remember, you are trying to understand what is going on in the market rather than within a single organization. • How the data is reported. Make sure you look at all the data provided, as many surveys will offer various “cuts” of the data. You may find cuts of the data based on organizational size or revenue size. • How the range of data is reported. Data will often be reported for average, median, and percentiles such as 25th and 75th percentile. This is important as you compare your job and the employees in that job to the reported data. Don’t expect it to match perfectly and the range will help you peg the best rate. Having market driven data assists organizational leaders in making pay decisions with more confidence and consistency. Archbright can help. Reach out to your Account Executive about our Market Price Report available on a per job basis. Source: Whittney Dideon, PHR, CPP, Director HR Systems & Services

CEO Corner

Shannon Kavanaugh President and CEO at Archbright

When the job market is a sellers-market!

In January of this year, The Seattle Times reported some good news for Washington State job hunters…the market is hot. But you likely already know/feel this. Here are some facts: • Washington state showed 2.9% growth in job numbers in 2016 • Professional and business services jobs are expected to grow by 3% in King County this year • Jobs in computer and mathematical occupations in King County will grow 3.5%, with 4,600 new jobs being added • Retail jobs statewide are projected to grow 2.8%, and jobs in leisure and hospitality are expected to grow 2% And other markets are somewhat flat: • Manufacturing jobs will see a decline of 0.75%, and architecture and engineering occupations will be essentially stagnant With all that job growth, and even with some stagnant industries, we are seeing a ‘sellers-market’ in that job hunters have the upper hand. We are expecting job growth for 2017 to be less than 2016, but still growing at 1.9%! And these statistics are not just numbers. Archbright members are seeing this challenge every day, as one of our fastest growing services utilized by members is Archbright Recruit! So, we are wishing you all happy hunting…it’s a jungle out there. And please let us know if Archbright can help!

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